Looking for a man in finance: Statistically, this is how many men you have to choose from

If you have not heard the phrase “looking for a man in finance”, you have likely not used social media over the last few months.

A TikTok video created by social media user Megan Boni, known online as Girl on Couch, has not just taken one platform by storm, it has transcended them all becoming a cultural moment of 2024.

The video shows Ms Boni waxing lyrical about her hopes to find what could be described as the ultimate catch.

“I’m looking for a man in finance,” she says.

“Trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes.”

With a catchy tempo and a list of desires that really can’t be argued with, Ms Boni reacted to the creation of her ditty with joy, suggesting she may have created a certified banger.

“Did I just write the song of the summer?” she captioned the post.

What followed was undisputable validation that Ms Boni had.

Securing over 45.5 million views on the original post to date, a recording contract with Universal Music and a song collaboration with international hit DJ David Guetta, it was clear Ms Boni had struck a cord.

However, one social media user has completed a deep-dive analysis to reveal how likely you are to meet the financial services suitor.

The statistics

TikToker and PowerPoint fanatic Rae Leigh, known online as Maxed Out Mommy, went through various statistics revealing that hopeful singles need to lower their expectations.

Firstly, Ms Leigh pointed out that of the 333 million person US population, only 100 million are men aged 18 years or older.

That means around 48.2 per cent of the working population over the age of 18 are men.

Ms Leigh then sighted the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, which says around 7.6 million people work in the finance and insurance sector.

From her additional research, Ms Leigh claimed that from that total, only around 3.6 million worked solely in finance.

Crunching the numbers further, this left 1.7 million men working in finance.

Significant damage was done to the potential dating pool when looking at how many men had a trust fund.

Survey findings in a ‘Consumer Finances’ report by the Reserve Banks suggest that only 1.2 per cent of Americans have a trust fund.

This requirement wiped out the vast majority, statistically leaving only 21,070 men.

Ms Leigh pointed out the “real killer” was the requirement for the man to be 6’5” (196cm).

In America, 0.1 per cent of men are 6’5” or above.

“Now, we’re down to only 21 men in the United States,” Ms Leigh lamented.

Looking at the eye colour requirement, Ms Leigh used the statistic that 27 per cent of the world’s population have blue eyes.

This took the pool statistically down to just 6 men.

Although, not technically a requirement from Ms Boni’s list, Ms Leigh further deduced that 29 per cent of working men are single.

With this final deduction, it statistically left only two single US men working in finance with a trust fund, a height of 6’5” and blue eyes.

“How do we find these men? There’s only two,” Ms Leigh could be heard saying.

It is important to note that Ms Leigh’s investigations did not take into account probability, meaning that by chance, more men meeting the requirements of Ms Boni’s list could indeed be out there.

With Australia having a much smaller population than the US, statistically, the man should not exist.

However, singles will be forgiven for holding out hope.

The viral sensation’s dating hopes

Perhaps controversially, the trend’s originator Ms Boni told the BBC she was not actually looking for said man.

“I doubt we would work”, she said

“Dating apps are making dating so much more impossible because they’re really raising everyone’s standards,” Megan says.

“So I was just trying to make fun of girls like myself who complain about being single but then have this laundry list of impossible needs.”